THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

OCTOBER, 1969

SS

WELDWOOD MILL BANS SAFETY TOUR . . .

A membership meeting of
Weldwood’s Squamish mill
crew on Sunday, September
14th, spent more than an hour
in dealing with alleged un-
safe working conditions in the
plant. Membership criticism

of plant management’s safety
attitude was also voiced with
the strongest complaint being
that the mill manager prom-
ised to correct reported haz-
ardous conditions, but that in
most cases corrective action
was never taken.

-.-. BUT CREW'S ACTION
CHANGED FIRM'S MIND

By BEN THOMPSON

Ist Vice-President, Local 1-71

The Local is pleased to re-
port that Safety is “back on
the track” at the Weldwood-
Empire Lumber mill at Squa-
mish.

The Company went into im-
mediate action when present-
ed with a lengthy list of re-
commendations from the crew
and the Safety Committee
members. A smaller parallel
list of orders from the W.C.B.
inspector has nearly all been
completed.

The Local was invited and
did participate in a joint Acci-
dent Prevention Committee
meeting on September 25th.
The mill manager remarked
that past circumstances had
created an :admitted lack of
attention to potential hazards.
He has now instructed all his
foremen to give these matters
their prior attention. Tom
Hollas (Company Safety Su-
pervisor) stated the company
is always looking for new
ideas and commended the
Committee for their recom-
mendation that the newly-
hired clean-up crews be in-
structed in standard mill

LIVE NUMBER

Sawmill Sue told us about
the girl who went to the fancy
dress ball as a telephone op-
erator. Before it was over,
she had three close calls!

GLOVE
PROBLEMS?

SOLVE THEM WITH
THESE WATSON GLOVES
AND MITTS

‘MILL-RITE’
‘GREEN CHAIN’

“LUMBER
LOADER’

avis) JOHN
iy WATSON LTD.

ene

“lock-out” procedures. Regu-
ar monthly safety meetings

ill be resumed.

Also announced at the meet-
ing was a dinner for the mem-
bers and their wives of Planer
B who have now worked for
more than one year without
an accident.

The WCB Rehabilitation
Centre cares for
450 people every day

As a result of the lengthy
safety discussion at this meet-
ing a motion was unanimous-
ly approved by the members
present instructing their Local
Officers to try to arrange a
safety tour of the mill by a
Local Representative, a WCB
inspector and the Plant Safe-
ty Committee.

The Local Officers in follow-
ing the memberships’ instruc-
tions on this matter contacted
management representatives
the next day and were inform-
ed by the mill manager that
no Local Union Representa-
tive would be allowed to be
present on a tour, which in-
cluded a’ WCB inspector.
When questioned on whether
the Regional Safety Director
(Brother Andy Smith) would
be allowed to participate in
the proposed tour, the mill
manager said “no he would

not.” Both the Local Officers
and Brother Smith have, how-
ever, ner ce the dubious
honour of being invited by
the mill manager to accom-
pany him on a personally con-
ducted tour of the plant at
any time. We can’t help but
wonder if such a personally
conducted tour by the mill
manager would not compare
fk tourist trips behind the

n Curtain; very carefully
canductedl

A safety tour of the Squa-
mish sawmill (under the re-
strictions imposed by the mill
manager) has been arranged
for Wednesday, September
17th. We understand that the
tour will include a WCB in-
spector, the Company Safety
Director (Mr. Tom Hollis)
and the Safety Committee.
Local Officers or the IWA
Safety Director will be con-

_

spicuous because of our ab-

nce.

We sincerely hope that the
restricted tour of Weldwood’s
ish sawmill is success-

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potentially hazardous condi-
tions, and that our members
employed there benefit accord- ~*
ingly. We are concerned at
this Company’s safety attitude
though — what have they got
to hide? In our opinion, there
should be no secrets in safety
and the widest possible par-
ticipation in a safety program
should be encouraged. We
Local Officers (and
certainly the IWA Safety Di-
rector) have an important part
to play in eliminating hazards
and reducing accidents. Obvi-
ously this opinion is not shar-
ed by the hierarchy of Weld-
wood.

ae

E. L. FREER,
President, Local 1-71.

A modern and fully equipped
Rehabilitation Centre is operated
in Vancouver by the Workmen’s
Compensation Board where

450 patients are treated every day.

The Physiotherapy, Occupational
Therapy and Remedial Exercise
Departments all play important
roles in the physical rehabilitation
of the injured. In addition, the

Industrial Department is particularly
useful in conditioning patients

for their return to employment.
Under expert guidance the patient
can apply himself there in the

areas of sheet metal, welding,
wrought-iron work, construction,
automobile maintenance and
there’s even special equipment for
loggers. The purpose of all this

helping you
| get Back
on the job

All at no cost to the patient.

none on the North American

settling of claims and in
performing its other duties.
The WCB is glad to help.

+
*
qi
investment in facilities, people and y
effort is to restore injured workers ¥
to health so they may resume "
productive employment. Or, in y
suitable cases, re-train them for |
some other line of work if they’re 3
permanently disabled and cannot 3
return to their previous occupation. *
4
B.C.’s labour force is protected x
by a compensation plan second to iA
continent—financed entirely by A
employers. The WCB always strives ’,
to be fair and impartial in the [
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WOoRKmens
compensation
BOARD seeits#

CYRIL WHITE, Chairman

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